IB MYP Individuals and Societies – Industrialization and Technological Developments Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – the IB holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or the IB store.

This practice set is for IB MYP Individuals and Societies and follows the International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and societies, from 2014. It covers industrialization and technological developments, a topic the brief lists for the individuals and societies on-screen examinations at the end of MYP year 5, and suits MYP years 4 and 5 (there is no SL/HL split). MYP has no prescribed content list – schools design their own units – so your teacher will share the task-specific clarifications.

Each question is labelled with the criterion it trains. Real MYP work is judged against criterion level descriptors (1–8, in four bands), so the mark points here are a revision aid, not IB marks. Towns, countries, people and figures in data and sources are fictional. A calculator is useful for questions 4, 8 and 10.

See also the study guide, the MYP Individuals and Societies hub, the printable checklist and the criteria in practice question set.

Questions

1. (Criterion A) State the inventor and the date of each: (i) the spinning mule, (ii) the first practical steam engine used to pump mines, (iii) the power loom. [3]

2. (Criterion A) Define (i) urbanisation, (ii) mechanisation, (iii) deindustrialisation. [3]

3. (Criterion A) Explain two reasons why the Industrial Revolution began in Britain. [4]

4. (Criterion B) A fictional weaving workshop had 40 workers producing 1,200 metres of cloth a day. After new machines arrived, 25 workers produced 3,000 metres a day.

(a) Calculate the output per worker before and after. [2] (b) Calculate the percentage increase in output per worker. [2] (c) State one effect of the change on the workers. [1]

5. (Criterion A) Explain two ways in which factory work differed from work under the domestic system. [4]

6. (Criteria B and D) Read Source A.

Source A – original text written for Marlbridge. An imagined letter from Ellen, aged 13, a piecer in a cotton mill, to her aunt, 1832: “We start at six and the bell does not let us go till past seven at night. The overlooker fines us if we are late. My fingers are sore from the threads and the noise is so loud I cannot hear the girl beside me. Mother says the wage is needed now Father’s loom stands idle.”

Treat Source A as if it were a genuine letter. Explain one value and one limitation of Source A for a student investigating child labour in textile mills. [4]

7. (Criterion B) A student’s investigation plan reads: Research question: “Was the Industrial Revolution good?” Sources: one website. Method: read and write it up. Identify three weaknesses in this plan and suggest an improvement for each. [6]

8. (Criterion B) Deaths per 1,000 people per year in Millford, a fictional industrial city, were 32 in 1840, 24 in 1880 and 16 in 1910.

(a) Calculate the percentage fall in the death rate from 1840 to 1910. [2] (b) Suggest two reasons for the fall. [2]

9. (Criterion B) Plan an investigation into how the arrival of the railway changed a town of your choice in the 19th century. Give a research question, a justification, two sources, a method and an action plan. [6]

10. (Criteria B and D) Employment in Veltia, a fictional country, in millions:

Year	Primary	Secondary	Tertiary
1950	3.0	4.8	4.2
2020	0.3	3.6	11.1

(a) Calculate the share of employment in the secondary sector in 1950 and in 2020. [2] (b) State the change in the secondary share in percentage points. [1] (c) Calculate the percentage change in the number of secondary jobs. [2] (d) Explain two reasons for the trend in the secondary sector. [2]

11. (Criteria A and D) Explain one benefit and one problem that automation brings for workers today. [4]

12. (Criteria A, C and D) “Industrialisation improved the lives of working people in Britain between 1760 and 1900.” To what extent do you agree? [10]

Answers

1. (i) Samuel Crompton, 1779 [1]; (ii) Thomas Newcomen, 1712 [1]; (iii) Edmund Cartwright, 1785 [1]. [3] Examiner insight: each mark needs both the name and the correct date; Watt for (ii) earns nothing, since he improved an existing engine.

2. (i) The rise in the share of a population living in towns and cities [1]; (ii) machines doing work once done by hand or by animals [1]; (iii) a long-term fall in manufacturing jobs and output in a place [1]. [3] Examiner insight: “cities getting bigger” is not urbanisation; the definition needs the proportion of people who are urban.

3. Britain had coal and iron ore close together [1], so fuel for steam engines and iron smelting was cheap, as when Darby used coke at Coalbrookdale in 1709 [1]. Profits from overseas trade and empire gave merchants capital [1], which they invested in mills and canals, and colonies supplied raw cotton and bought finished goods [1]. [4] Examiner insight: each reason needs a point and an explanation of how it caused growth; naming four factors with no explanation scores less than two explained ones.

4. (a) Before: 1,200 ÷ 40 = 30 m per worker [1]. After: 3,000 ÷ 25 = 120 m per worker [1]. (b) (120 − 30) ÷ 30 × 100 [1] = 300% [1]. (c) Fifteen workers (37.5%) lost their jobs, or the remaining workers worked at the pace of the machines [1]. [5] Examiner insight: dividing by the new value (120) is the most common slip; show the formula so a method mark is still possible.

5. In the domestic system families worked at home and set their own pace [1]; in factories the bell and the machine set hours, with fines for lateness [1]. Domestic workers used hand-powered tools and often owned them [1], whereas factory workers operated water- or steam-powered machines owned by the mill owner, so they sold only their labour [1]. [4] Examiner insight: “differed” needs both sides in each point; describing factory work alone earns only half.

6. Value: written by a child worker at the time, it gives first-hand detail of hours (six till past seven), fines and physical strain [1], which reports by owners might leave out [1]. Limitation: it is one child in one mill, so it may not be typical [1], and a letter to family may exaggerate or leave things out; it needs checking against factory inspectors’ reports or wage records [1]. [4] Examiner insight: value and limitation must be tied to the stated purpose (child labour in mills); generic “it is biased” comments earn little.

7. The research question is too broad and closed (“good” is undefined, and yes/no) [1]; improve it by naming a group, place and period, for example “How far did living conditions for mill workers in Manchester improve between 1830 and 1870?” [1]. One website is too narrow a source range [1]; add primary sources such as census tables and factory inspectors’ reports, and a secondary history [1]. The method has no steps or timeline [1]; add an action plan with dated stages for research, note-taking, analysis and evaluation [1]. [6] Examiner insight: criterion B credit comes from improvements that are specific and workable; “use more sources” without saying which ones is too vague.

8. (a) (32 − 16) ÷ 32 × 100 [1] = 50% [1]. (b) Sewers and clean piped water after public health laws cut cholera and typhoid [1]; better housing, diet or vaccination reduced disease [1]. [4] Examiner insight: “suggest” allows reasoned explanations not in the data, but each must link to fewer deaths, not just name a reform.

9. Research question, for example: “How did the opening of the railway in 1840 change the size and jobs of Harrowby between 1831 and 1871?” [1]. Justification: it tests the concept of change and shows how transport shaped urban growth [1]. Sources: census returns for 1831–1871 (primary) [1] and a local history of the town (secondary) [1]. Method: compare population and occupations in each census, and map where new streets were built [1]. Action plan: weeks 1–2 collect census data; week 3 read the local history; week 4 analyse and write; week 5 evaluate the sources and process [1]. [6] Examiner insight: a plan earns credit when each part follows from the research question; sources that cannot answer it lose the method mark.

10. (a) 1950: 4.8 ÷ 12.0 × 100 = 40% [1]; 2020: 3.6 ÷ 15.0 × 100 = 24% [1]. (b) A fall of 16 percentage points [1]. (c) (3.6 − 4.8) ÷ 4.8 × 100 [1] = −25%, a 25% fall [1]. (d) Automation means fewer workers are needed for the same output [1]; manufacturing moved to countries with lower labour costs, while services grew with rising incomes [1]. [7] Examiner insight: keep percentage points and percentage change apart; writing “a 16% fall” in (b) loses the mark.

11. Benefit: machines take over dangerous or repetitive tasks, such as welding on car assembly lines [1], so injuries fall and workers can move to better-paid technical roles [1]. Problem: routine jobs in factories, warehouses or checkouts are lost [1], and workers without digital skills may struggle to find new work, widening inequality [1]. [4] Examiner insight: each side needs an example and a consequence; a benefit to firms (lower costs) does not answer a question about workers.

12. Indicative points:

• Defines “working people” and sets the time frame, noting that experiences changed over 140 years [1].
• Early factories brought long hours, fines and child labour [1].
• Rapid urban growth led to overcrowded back-to-back housing and cholera, so early town death rates were high [1].
• Skilled hand workers lost income; Luddite protests (1811–1816) show resistance [1].
• The Factory Act (1833) limited child labour in mills; the Mines Act (1842) banned women underground [1].
• The Public Health Act (1848), sewers and clean water later cut disease [1].
• Real wages rose in the later 19th century; cheaper goods, railways and trade unions improved many lives [1].
• Distinguishes groups: children, women, skilled workers and factory hands gained or lost differently [1].
• Uses concepts of change and causality to link industry with both problems and reforms [1].
• Judgement: lives were harsher in the early decades but, for most, improved by 1900, largely because of reforms that industrial society forced into being [1]. [10]

Examiner insight: in a real examination this would be judged against criterion descriptors, and a sustained, evidence-based judgement matters more than the number of points; a one-sided answer cannot reach the top band.

Where marks are usually lost

• Crediting Watt with the first steam engine, or giving dates decades out.
• Defining urbanisation as “towns getting bigger” instead of a rising share of people.
• Dividing by the new value in a percentage change.
• Mixing up percentage points and percentage change with sector data.
• Source answers that say “biased” without saying how that affects its use for the stated purpose.
• Research questions that are closed, undefined or far too wide.
• Plans that name no specific sources and give no dated steps.
• Extended answers that describe conditions but never reach a judgement.

Next steps

• Industrialization revision notes
• Industrialization study guide
• MYP Individuals and Societies hub
• Printable checklist
• Source-evaluation exam preparation
• All free 10-minute diagnostics
• Book a free trial class

Official syllabus

This practice set is aligned to the International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and societies, from 2014, which lists “industrialization and technological developments” among the topics explored in the individuals and societies on-screen examinations.